Trinidad and Tobago senior footballers did not live up to the expectations of their eager fans as they slumped to a 4-1 defeat to Austria before 20,900 fans at the Ernst Happel Stadium on a not so chilly night in Vienna.

But neither was it warm by any means for the visiting “Soca Warriors” as they suffered too many unforced errors and paid the price with Rene Aufhauser grabbing a first half hattrick and substitute Ferdinand Feldhofer netting a late fourth item for the hosts.

T&T head coach Wim Rijsbergen, already missing no less than seven World Cup regulars, thought his team would have had a chance of salvaging a result as though being exploited at the back, they did manage to force some pressure on the Austrians with Carlos Edwards and Collin Samuel in particular running at them.

Skipper Dennis Lawrence was an overworked man by the end of the game and even his efforts couldn’t prevent the scoreline. Missing due to late knee injury was leading goalscorer Stern John, Dwight Yorke, Avery John, Kenwyne Jones, Brent Sancho, Kelvin Jack with Cornell Glen injured out and the likes of Shaka Hislop, Silvio Spann and Marvin Andrews also out of the fray.

From as early as the third minute, goalkeeper Jan Michael Williams had to gather Sanel Kuljic’s effort. Then on four minutes Cyd Gray had to clear off the line with Williams beaten and Roland Linz looking set to open the scoring.

Samuel later cut in from the left and had his shot deflected out. But it wasn’t before too long that Aufhauser converted from Linz’s pass on the left of the box.

Then in the 17th minute, defender Atiba Charles, having one of those nights that he would quickly want to forget tried to find Chris Birchall only for Christoph Leitgeb to see his effort saved low down by Williams.

T&T got back in it when Edwards sweetly created for Samuel to collect and neatly beat the advancing Alexander Manninger for a 1-1 scoreline on 23 minutes.

But T&T’s celebrations were shortlived as another lapse in their half of the field as Aufhauser converted from a tight angle and the same man headed home on the near post from Andrea Ivanschitz just before the interval.

In other first half action, Charles misjudged a ball played deep into the area and Kuljic had only himself to blame for shooting wide. Birchall had T&T’s next closest attempt as his free kick drive was deflected just over bar.

Rijsbergen put midfielder Densill Theobald in the middle after the break at Charles’ expense and though trailing by two, T&T enjoyed more possession and looked more settled than previous. Edwards almost pulled the deficit to one when his cracker from 30 yards out crashed off the cross bar and Samuel collected inside the box and failed to push it past Manninger, also seeing a second attempt scrambled away on the rebound.

Home based pros, Kerry Baptiste, Andre Toussaint and Andrei Pacheco all got runs in the closing ten minutes but there was little more done to T&T’s performance. All that was left was for the home fans to applaud their team’s fourth item on the night. The overseas-based pros return to their respective clubs on Thursday while the home-base contingent also fly out of Vienna in the morning.